vcrowvccolumnvccolumntextWe’re Katey Stoetzel and Sara Hettel, and we’ll be teaming up this semester to bring you Netflix Roulette. Netflix Roulette is a weekly source for commentary about television shows found within Netflix’s library. Each week, we randomly select a series by spinning the wheel on the website. All thoughts, observations and reviews are based only on the pilot episode of each series.

The CW’s “” focuses on Oliver Queen as he transitions back to normal life after shipwrecking onto an island in China for five years. Forced to live in isolation for so long, Queen hones his survival skills. Upon his return to Starling City, Queen uses his newfound skills for good, such as bringing down bad guys, all the while maneuvering the emotional stresses of his family, friends and exes.

The pilot episode aired Oct. 10, 2012./vccolumntextvcvideo link=”Sara: My internal dialogue right now is just a bunch of exclamation points. Katey: And what do those exclamation points represent?

Arrow Roulette Game

Sara: Happiness at the fact that this pilot is perfect. I felt like I watched an entire movie in 40 minutes. Katey: It is a nice balance of backstory, exposition and action. I really like how it starts off with Oliver getting rescued from the island and him already having his game plan when he gets back to Starling City. It definitely takes the audience along for the ride. I have this weird obsessiveness with characters who either fake their death or are presumed dead because I love seeing the other characters reactions to seeing them alive again.

With “Arrow”, even though we didn’t know any of his family, that reunion was still very emotional and genuine to me. Sara: The opening was great. This was my first time seeing the show, so I’m more interested in what happened on the island at this point than I am about Oliver fighting crime, but that’s a really compelling story as well.

The acting here on all parts is fantastic, and I think that plays a big role in how emotionally invested I got in the characters after such a short time. The reunions were all incredibly genuine, and it was nice to have the characters sort of laid out and identified right away instead of having to guess who’s who and what their relation is to Oliver. Katey: “Arrow” is one of my favorite shows right now, even though in season three things get weird. And I’ve watched this pilot episode many times, and I still love it.

Sara, since you said you’re interested in what happened on the island, the flashback scenes we get in the pilot continue on throughout the rest of season one and up through current episodes in season four. I’m curious what you think about Oliver.

I like how complicated he is, but he can kind of be unlikable sometimes. Sara: I’m torn on Oliver. Half the time I found myself really liking him, and I can get behind the whole Robin Hood thing, but at the same time he’s very polarizing. It is interesting to see billionaire Oliver before the wreck and billionaire Oliver after, because it seems like he hasn’t changed, yet his role as world savior shows that he has.

He’s doing good in a bad way, I guess, which ultimately makes him a near-perfect protagonist in my eyes. Katey: He does kill a lot of people in this pilot. Not very superhero-like. But I get what you mean.

And him killing people is an arc for the season. I was just curious what you thought of him because I really started to dislike him during season three. But that’s way down the line. Shoutout to, though.

His acting as billionaire Oliver and post-island Oliver is so great. What were some of your other favorite characters? I’m partial to Diggle, Tommy and Detective Lance. Sara: Yeah, I’m a little confused as to why he decided he had to go and kill everyone because Hunt had all that money, but that just goes to show how changed he’s become since the island.

He’s not the same person he was before, just like the doctor said in the beginning. Right now I’m liking the storyline developing between Laurel, Lance and Oliver since there’s so much drama potential there, but Tommy is great comic relief. I’m not finding myself absolutely loathing anyone here, which is generally a sign of a good show. Even Oliver’s mom has a compelling story, and my mind was blown at that final plot twist when it was revealed that she sent kidnappers to nearly kill her own son. Katey: Oh, yes. How did you feel about that reveal about Moira Queen?

Sara: I felt very betrayed, haha. Katey: But you don’t think she’s completely evil, do you?

Sara: I think she’s probably gone a little crazy, which is somewhat understandable. I don’t see her becoming a major villain, though. Katey: These are probably leading questions, sorry about that, haha. I just remember the first time watching it and thinking “oh no, not the evil mother trope.” Sara: Yeah, I don’t think she’s totally evil at all. I get the sense that she’s in a lot of pain and has a lot of questions about the situation. She’s definitely going about getting answers the wrong way, but I don’t see it being done in 100 percent malice.

Katey: Cool, cool. You should continue watching. Side note — I’ve been meaning to ask, how many of these shows we’ve watched have you continued on with?

Because I’m on season four of “” right now. Anyway, speaking of the way Moira is going about getting her answers — I loved that kidnapping scene. “Arrow” is a show that should have been nominated for an Emmy in Stunt Coordination by now, but it hasn’t and it makes me really angry. Sara: I think this is one I’ll definitely continue. I’m slowly moving through “,” and I have “Scrubs” on the backburner. I get easily overwhelmed with TV, which I know is sad, haha. Thanksgiving break will be a Netflix godsend.

Yes to the stunts. I was honestly pretty surprised that none of them looked cheesy and fake.

Katey: Well, did you see the montage of Stephen Amell working out? Because, um, yeah. Nothing fake there. Season two of “Arrow” is seriously the best single season of television I’ve seen in terms of consistency. Hmmmlet’s see.

Are we leaving anything out? I feel like we are. Sara: Stephen Amell working out is also a Netflix godsend. That makes me happy. The longer I typically watch shows on The CW, the worse they seem to get, so I’m really hoping “Arrow” continues to be solid. I feel like we’ve pretty much covered everything important, and I think I managed to get through without gushing too much, so I’d say that’s a win.

Any final thoughts? Katey: The CW is so underrated. That’s all I wanted to add.

Sara: I had no idea they were capable of putting out a show like “Arrow.” They’ve stepped it up for sure. Now I’ll have to start “” too. Definitely “The Flash.” I love “The Flash.” Where “Arrow” is dark and gritty, “The Flash” is light-hearted. But that’s a conversation for another day, the Netflix Roulette wheel be willing. Sara: Yeah, we gotta stop, haha.

Let the Netflix Roulette wheel be on our side next week. The fourth season of “Arrow” premiered Oct. The show has five stars on Netflix.

Similar titles include “The Flash,” “” and “” Join us in two weeks — after Thanksgiving break — for a discussion of NBC’s “.”/vccolumntext/vccolumn/vcrow.

The is all grown up indeed, featuring 34 songs ranging from AC/DC, Aerosmith and Bad Company to Fleetwood Mac, Journey and Cheap Trick. Oh yeah, there’s also Eddie Money and Paul McCartney. So basically it’s the music you were listening to in your yellow, striped Gremlin back in 1978.

But man – how much do you miss that car? The does a decent job of representing the music from the movie. It contains 16 of the 34 songs from Grown Ups. For those of you stomping the ground and throwing a little fit about 18 songs that are missing, don’t worry, we gathered them for you here as well, including all three songs from the J Geils Band featuring in the movie. Check out the synth in this track.

They don’t make them like they used to. Sometimes that’s good, sometimes not so much. You make the call. Update: One of the songs that a lot of people asking about is the song playing during the basketball game at the end.

It’s by Hot Chocolate. Here’s the list of all of the songs in Grown Ups in the order that they appeared in the movie and with notes on the scenes they were in. Update: I’ve been able to identify most of the scenes that the songs were in, but there are about 5 or 6 songs that I think played in the background when they were out at the restaurant but I cannot be sure. They are marked as (unknown scene) below. What do you think: was Grown Ups more like a comedic version of the Expendables or crappier version of Daddy Day Care / Day Camp / DayQuil?